Conor Kelly earns second call-up to the Ireland Club team
Conor Kelly celebrates with Clontarf team mate, and former Portlaoise player, Will Reilly after kicking the winning conversion against Terenure last season Photo: ©INPHO/Andrew Conan
THERE was good news for former Portlaoise RFC member, Conor Kelly when the team for the Ireland Club team for their game on Friday was announced yesterday.
Kelly was handed the number 10 jersey for the game against Scotland in Energia Park, Donnybrook at 6.30pm. This will be the second has been selected on the Ireland Club team having also played in the win against Portugal A last season, a game in which he kicked five conversions.
Last season Kelly was the AIL Division 1A’s top points scorer with an amazing 202 points. It was fitting that Kelly passed the 200-point mark during 22-21 Division 1A final victory over defending champions Cork Constitution.
As things stand at the end of January this season, Kelly in second in the points scoring table with 85 points.
Kelly also topped the kicking metres table with 4,479 metres and the minutes played with a total of 1,591 minutes, the equivalent of 290 games. Kelly has had mixed luck when it comes to AIL Division 1A finals. He came on as a replacement when ‘Tarf lost the 2019 and 2023 finals but made up for it by scoring 19 points in the final defat of Terenure in 2022. And then last season won his second champions medal.
Having started playing mini-rugby at the age of six in Portlaoise he subsequently attended Cistercian College, Roscrea and was part of a strong Portlaoise contingent that joined Clontarf.
He was also two years in the Leinster sub-academy as well as Leinster and Ireland Under-18s and 19s sides, and he won a Celtic Cup with Leinster A.
The Ireland Club International team was introduced in 2006 and their first game was against Scotland Clubs. The team brings together the very best All-Ireland League players and matches them with their international counterparts.
